A police spokeswoman said McCarthy had hoped to display 25 weapons from among the more than 300 seized since Jan. 1 — but in fact the ones shown were from last year. Some dated from last summer, according to inventory tags on the weapons.

Reporters attending the news conference at the Gresham Police District station, 7808 S Halsted St., noticed the inventory tags, and McCarthy was asked about them. He said the guns weren’t the actual ones seized in 2013, but were “representative” of them.

"Well, you know what the point is? These are representative of what we're recovering today," McCarthy said. "The problem is that many of the guns we’re recovering today are arrest evidence, and we can't display them. So what we'll do is substitute one for the other. OK?"

Police spokeswoman Melissa Stratton said the department had intended to show this year's seizures, but the firearms weren't inventoried in time. The weapons shown "match the guns that we took off the street" in characteristics like maker and caliber, she said.

Despite having among the strictest gun laws in the nation, Chicago had more murders than the much more populous cities of New York and Los Angeles.

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